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The offensive cartoon crisis opened the door to a heated debate between the two Turkish presidents, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Macron. Erdogan said the French president needed to “examine his mental health”, prompting Paris to denounce the statements as “unacceptable” and that “the increasing rhetoric and vulgarity are not a way to negotiate.” And Paris announced that it had summoned its ambassador to Ankara for consultations.
Erdogan’s stances toward France are harsher than his stances toward the Chinese rapes of Uighurs. Before 2016, Turkey was a haven for Uyghurs fleeing China’s oppression. And theMany of the Uighur Muslims have their origins in Turkey, and this makes Ankara’s position special in other countries. In 2009, when Erdogan was prime minister, he said: “The events in China are simply genocide.”
Except that In 2017, Ankara signed an agreement with Beijing that allows the extradition of criminals even if the alleged crime is only illegal in one of the two countries, and since the beginning of 2019, Turkey has arrested hundreds of Uighur Muslims, and sent them to deportation centers, which was a huge turnaround on Turkish positions. Observers attributed the Turkish transformation to Erdogan’s adherence to economic interests in light of the decline of his country’s economy, shrinking foreign reserves and the collapse of the local currency.
Islamic Action Organization
In 2018, the Independent Human Rights Commission of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a 57-member organization that considers itself the “collective voice of the Islamic world,” recognized that Uighur Muslims face “increasing discrimination on the grounds of religion “and that they are” forced to follow and adopt values and practices. ” Cultural conflicts with their religious beliefs “.
However, after a few months, the Islamic Organization changed its rhetoric and began to glorify China’s efforts in the field of human rights and expression, expressing its desire for “future cooperation” with Beijing.
Macron’s proposal to protect his country’s secular values from followers of extremist Islamic currents enraged the Turkish government. Macron described Islam this month as a religion that is in “crisis” around the world and indicated that the government will introduce a bill in December to toughen a law passed in 1905 that formally separates church and state in France.
Macron also announced tightening control over schools and improving control over external funding of mosques, after a militant beheaded a French teacher who offered insulting cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.
